“Our young generation particularly showed that it still possesses the same political enthusiasm, awareness, and commitment that we saw in the first generation of the revolution. However, with one difference: the hot furnace of the revolution created emotions in the hearts of people, later during the war in a different manner, but today the same […]
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Monthly Review Magazine
“Antiwar Party” Votes for War
The five senators voting against $106 billion for Obama’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were three reactionaries — Coburn (R-OK), DeMint (R-SC), and Enzi (R-WY) — and only two progressives Feingold (D-WI) and Sanders (I-VT). Not voting were two sick senators, Byrd (D-WV) and Kennedy (D-MA), and one just disgraced one — Ensign (R-NV). A […]
Message to US Peace Groups: A Little Humility Please
(This missive is directed at the non-Iranian “peace organizations” who are presently issuing “statements” on the Iran events for whatever organizational purposes they have in mind. It is not at all intended to be critical of most of the excellent analysis and information exchange occurring, particularly within the Iranian communities.) We Americans love to shoot […]
Iran: Mousavi States His Case
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate challenging Iran’s authorities on the result of last week’s presidential elections, is a masterful tactician who wants to overturn the re-election of his rival, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, with allegations of a massive conspiracy that he claims cheated him and millions of his supporters. These supporters, identifiable by the color […]
Iran: Mousavi Supporters Hold Day of Mourning
Imam Khomeini Square, Tehran, 18 June 2009
Report of Fact-finding Team from JNU on the Eve of Lalgarh Violence
A fact-finding team of nine students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) recently visited Lalgarh, to probe into the reality of the ongoing movement of the people in the area. Here we are enclosing the preliminary details of what we saw. We would like to appeal to your daily news channel to also highlight certain […]
Brazil: Lula Says There Is No Evidence of Fraud in Iran and Wants to Visit the Country
BBC Brasil Special Correspondent, Geneva President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Monday in Geneva that there is “no evidence” that there has been a fraud in the Iranian elections and affirmed that he wants to set a date to visit the country next year. “Look, the (Iranian) president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) received a […]
Mexico: As July Elections Approach, Voters Apathetic, Cynical
What a change from three years ago. Then Mexico’s left was on the march, from the resistance of the teachers and people in Oaxaca City to the mass demonstrations in Mexico City for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, candidate of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). In 2006, Local 22 of the Mexican Teachers Union […]
Dueling Rallies, Tehran, 14-17 June 2009
Dueling rallies for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, color-coded (Iran’s national colors for Ahmadinejad, Green for Mousavi). Thousands Join Pro-Mousavi Rally, 17 June 2009 Police and Crowd Hand in Hand, 17 June 2009 Ahmadinejad Supporters Hold Unity Rally, 16 June 2009 Demonstrations Continue in Tehran, 16 June 2009 Téhéran: Manifestation monstre et violence, 15 June […]
Venezuela Denounces Campaign of Interference against the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Foreign Ministry of Venezuela condemns the vicious and unfounded campaign to discredit the institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, unleashed from outside, to roil the political climate. The ministry denounces the acts of interference in the internal affairs of Iran, designed to threaten and destabilize the Islamic Revolution. (MPPRE) Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela […]
Doctors and Nurses Protest in Tehran, 16 June 2009
Rasoul Akram Hospital’s doctors and nurses protest the deaths of seven people last night, reportedly shot by basij. Iran – State TV: Seven People Killed Near Rally SiteVideo by France 24 Doctors and Nurses Protest in Tehran, 16 June 2009Video by Saeid Saeid, born in Kermanshah, is an electrical engineer in Enschede, the Netherlands.
The Iranian Elections and the Hysterical Media
Here comes the hysteria and bold-faced lies. In the wake of the Iranian election, various commentators and so-called reporters in the United States are reacting as if the end of the world was at hand. Although nobody knows for certain and everyone only has the words of Western press pundits and an angry candidate to […]
40 National Orgs. Tell Congress, “Freeze Military Aid to Israel Until Israel Freezes Settlements”
Washington, DC (June 16, 2009) — As the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs prepares to mark up the FY2010 budget tomorrow, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation sent today an open letter to subcommittee members calling on them to cut off or, at the minimum, condition military aid […]
Iran: What Can the Opposition Win?
Hamid Dabashi1 points out that, whatever the truth on the elections, the “fix” has become a “social fact” inasmuch as millions of Iranians are staking their lives on that very belief. He also pointedly satirizes Orientalist assumptions of the Reading-Lolita-in-Tehran variety and takes the opportunity to remind people that solidarity, not “democracy promotion,” is what […]
Workers Creating Hope: Factory Occupations and Self-Management
Introduction In most countries, political leaders and bosses are using the global economic crisis to once again unleash an attack on workers and the poor. As part of this, we have seen corporations around the world trying to make workers pay for the crisis by retrenching tens of millions of people. In the most extreme […]
SA Political Power Balance Shifts Left — Though Not Yet Enough to Quell Grassroots Anger
With high-volume class strife heard in the rumbling of wage demands and the friction of township “service delivery protests,” rhetorical and real conflicts are bursting open in every nook and cranny of South Africa. The big splits in the society are clearer now. Distracting internecine rivalries within the main left bloc — which saw off […]
Protest against Election Results
Cf. Max Ajl, “Tehran Burning” (Jewbonics, 15 June 2009); and Richard Seymour, “Iran Vote and Protests” (Lenin’s Tomb, 15 June 2009).
Iran: After the Election
Ahmadinejad supporters celebrate their victory while Mousavi supporters protest to contest the election results. Ahmadinejad supporters celebrate. . . . . . . while Mousavi supporters protest. Cf. Abbas Barzegar, “Wishful Thinking from Tehran” (Guardian, 13 June 2009); Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty, “The Iranian People Speak” (Washington Post, 15 June 2009); “Iranians Call for […]
Workers Blast Wells Fargo as a Roadblock to Recovery
Chicago What are the banks doing with the bailout billions taxpayers gave them, to help us on the road to economic recovery? In the case of Wells Fargo and the Quad City Die Casting (QCDC) factory in Moline, Illinois, nothing good. In fact the bank is a huge roadblock to recovery. That’s why on […]
A Sip of Coffee: Nahr al-Bared Camp, Lebanon
In May 2007, the battle between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army broke out in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Amidst heavy fighting, the Lebanese army had systematically destroyed the entire camp by September 2007. Two years later, nearly all the rubble has been cleared from the “old camp,” the core of Nahr […]
